Day 4 - 365/2014 (a few minutes past the midnight deadline)

Day Four

What the...already???  Geez -- I dozed off in front of tv and now I am just minutes late on posting Day Four to the blog.  Oh well.

Today I stopped in to see my friend Peggy Kerwan's latest art exhibit.  Her "Eye of the Beholder" is on display in  the front wall gallery area of the Plymouth Community Arts Council.

I also made a stop by Hunt's Ace Hardware to pick up the wall dog kit that they ordered for me.  This wall is trying its best to thwart my efforts to hand more magnetic strips for displaying some of my Art-o-mat collection.  Not only that, but these wall dog anchors (all 4 of the sizes in the kit) are too large for the holes in the strips...so I went back to using the small plastic wall anchors and smaller screws (which I also picked up today).  Gah.  I admit defeat for tonight -- but tomorrow I will get these strips hung! 

It happened AGAIN -- these stupid, stupid drywall-over-plaster walls are so hard to work with!

I am doing everything correctly -- AND -- I might add, in the same manner that the other strips went up with very little effort in the other area of my studio.  This is driving me absolutely nuts but I WILL emerge the victor!

365/2013 - Day 305

a visit to Jan Waller's solo exhibit "Felt Works" in Plymouth

Today I went to see Jan Waller's wonderful solo show "Felt Works" at the Plymouth Community Arts Council in Plymouth.  The show is as lovely as Jan.  It was cool, too, that I saw so many people I know...plus Jan and Mark and their kids Cam and Issie.

Look -- someone purchased my favorite of Jan's pieces -- "School of Thought"!

The front walls of the PCAC feature a fiber arts exhibit from the Running with Scissors group, but I failed to get good shots of them.  

ALSO in the front of the PCAC (just inside the front door and to the right as you enter the building) is a display from Jan's felting workshop on "We Felt United" day.  Terri, Juana and I attended that workshop and we made felted fish.  

my fish

 Make sure to visit Jan's blog Love. Make. Think. if you haven't already!

365/2013 - Day 277

felting and logging in submissions

Today Juana, Terri, and I went to Jan Waller's felting workshop at the Plymouth Community Arts Council.  We made felt fish with Jan as part of "Water", Felt United's international felting event.  Some of the fish were flat and some were 3D and all will be displayed together soon at the center.

It was a delightful group of kids and adults, females and males.  We all had great fun and it was one of those "I-can't-believe-I-just-made-THIS" adventures.

Here are some pics I snapped throughout the session.

yes...I worked with my fish in this upside down position to make myself concentrate more on the laying down of two even layers of felty fiber stuff (one going vertical and one going horizontal)...then I added the color details

Jan checking my progress and giving me a "felting slave" to help with part of the rubbing stage...later I remembered it is the ROLLING stage that I absolutely can't do on my own.

Andrew graciously worked on that end of my fish while I worked on the other...sometimes we overlapped.

This was the next step in the 3D felting process -- flip the fish over and do it again on the other side.

My other side -- dry

My still quite damp 3D fish!

He has a sort of nose and a snaggletooth.

Terri & her fishy.

My guy -- side view.

My guy with some stuffing in him.

Add caption

The group's fishes -- left to dry.

Juana's fish is the red-looking guy in the center bottom row (but he is actually more magenta).

Terri's guy is drying with a support to try to keep his shape -- felt has memory.

Another 3D fish I really loved.

I LOVE his face/eyes/mouth!

Today at 5pm was the deadline for the call for entries I am working on...after the workshop Juana and Terri and I needed to kill a little time before I needed to stop by the NAH to pick up the last of the submissions for the "[small] Works Exhibit".  I am doing the organizing (not the jurying) of this exhibit.  We tried to go to Parmenter's Cider Mill but the line was waaay too long.  We went to Tuscan for coffee and a bite...then went to pick up the entries.

21 entries from Friday and Saturday!

Holy Hannah -- after logging in all of the entry forms it turns out we received 102 entries from 38 artists -- GREAT turn out!  For the rest of the night I will be adding the artwork to the file folder and then tweaking the file names and assigning them numbers to make a slide show for the jury.  I also need to notify the entrants that I received their submissions and that the 3-juror panel will meet on Wednesday...but the initial notifications won't happen until Wednesday afternoon because I feel that they should come from the NAH instead of my personal email.  I will send out the juror results via regular mail on Thursday.  I really LOVE doing this sort of organizing and filing and stuff!

I gave the CDs that arrived in envelopes a jewel case so that I could handle them without getting them scratched, etc.  It is much easier to stack them like this.

The number of entries we received is far beyond what I had anticipated...the jury will really need to be selective...good luck everybody!

2012/365 - Day 105

About Face

Today Ruth and I went to the artists reception for the show "About Face" at the Plymouth Community Arts Council.  I knew our friend Peggy Kerwan had two pieces in the show and we wanted to go and see her at the reception.  We also discovered that our friend Carla Morabito has a piece in the show as well.

It was a very pleasant reception with live music.  This is just a small sample of the artwork in the show -- you really ought to go and check it out for yourself.

The show runs through April 26th.

The Plymouth Community Arts Council

774 N. Sheldon Road

Plymouth, MI  48170

(734) 416-4276

Hours:  Monday - Thursday from 9:00 - 5:00